Organizer: Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI)

Type/Location: Virtual

Description:

As AI capabilities concentrate among a handful of dominant powers, full technological sovereignty has become increasingly elusive for most countries. In its place, governments across Asia are pursuing managed interdependence, forging bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that selectively deepen cooperation in AI-relevant areas. These provisions include pre-existing agreements that cover foundational facets of AI, such as cross-border data flows and algorithms, as well as newer AI-specific clauses.

Join the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for a virtual panel discussion marking the launch of ASPI’s new tracker, the Asian Digital Trade Agreement Tracker. Panelists will discuss the tracker's key insights, the strategic logic driving the region's digital alignment, and what this patchwork of trade agreements means for AI governance in the Indo-Pacific.

ASPI will be joined by Elina Noor, Non-Resident Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Nigel Cory, Director, Crowell Global Advisors. Faye Simanjuntak, Schwarzman Fellow, ASPI, will moderate the discussion. More speakers to be announced. 

About the Speakers:

Elina Noor is a nonresident scholar in the Asia Program at Carnegie where she focuses on developments in Southeast Asia, particularly the impact and implications of technology in reshaping power dynamics, governance, and nation-building in the region. Previously, Elina was director of political-security affairs and deputy director of the Washington, D.C. office at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Prior to that, Elina was an associate professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. She spent most of her career at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, where she last held the position of director, foreign policy and security studies. Elina was also formerly with the Brookings Institution’s Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. 

Nigel Cory is a director with Crowell Global Advisors, a global consultancy, focusing on cross-border data flows and data governance, new and emerging technologies like cloud and artificial intelligence, international technology governance, and how all these issues relate to digital trade and the broader digital economy. He is also a non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research. Nigel was a member of the United Kingdom’s International Data Transfer Expert Council and is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Data Free Flow with Trust Expert Community. He previously covered trade and digital policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation for eight years. Prior to that, he worked for eight years in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Faye Simanjuntak is a Schwarzman Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. She is studying AI policy across Asia. Previously, she spent time at various technology companies building out APAC strategy, and later on worked as an analyst of Southeast Asian public policy. She is interested in emerging technology adoption among developing economies, as well as applications of technology in civic innovation.

Registration:

To attend the event virtually, please register here.